My contractor tolerance is so low.

I have to admit - the whole world feels a little like sandpaper to me these days. Every interaction is a little pricklier. People seem more rough around the edges. Maybe it's just me. Because I obviously am more rough around the edges. But, I had to hire a contractor to install a dishwasher.

Sure, I've taken dishwasher installation 101. But my dishwasher was a special case. And special should be in quotey fingers and said in the most sarcastic way.

Back when we were all way more rich, I bought one of those dual drawer dishwashers. Only to find out a couple years in - like those front loading washing machines - they don't really work as great as they are suppose to.

The dishwasher had a flaw where the water from one drawer would flow back into the other. Causing them to fail. You needed to have a special air gap to prevent the back flow problem from happening.

So when we ordered the dishwasher we made them make all sorts of special comments on the order. And of course, their expert installers would have everything and know everything to complete the installation.

Only that is never the case. But - we already had the part because we were going to fix the last one and put this new part in.

Only again - they won't install any parts that do not come with the machine. And even if they were to install the part, the 10 dollars in parts they needed to do it weren't covered in installation. No seriously.

It wasn't that I didn't want to pay for the parts. Even though I assumed that was covered in the "installation fee". I told the guy I'd pay for the parts. But even though he was a licenced plumber - he didn't have these parts. Four plumbing clamps and less than a foot of hose. Standard effing plumbing parts.

Anyway. This is how my dishwasher took four and a half hours to install. One hour of it was negotiation. The rest he was just really slow.

Normally I can find something interesting in any contractor, and really I'm only a weekend warrior - so it's always helpful to watch what the guys are doing so I can steal all their handy contractor knowledge.

I didn't have a problem with the contractor at all. He was a nice enough guy after a understood I wasn't trying to screw him for the price of parts. I ran out and got them. The whole four hours were just painful to me though. I mean, you have to convince a guy who's been doing this for 20 years that somehow you know better than he does. In the most polite way. It just gave that all over sandpaper feeling.

Which doesn't bode well for me. I still have a fence to get through.